The Legend of the Strawberry Underwear
by Night Strider
Summary: A prequel to ‘The Mystery of the Strawberry Underwear’. How did HE come to be in possession of that underwear and why? Ayako’s POV. Shounen-ai. One shot.


The Legend of the Strawberry Underwear

Disclaimer: I don't own SD boys, Inoue does. The events that follow are not included in the original plot but enjoy anyway.

Summary: A prequel to 'The Mystery of the Strawberry Underwear'. How did HE come to be in possession of it and why? Ayako's POV. Shounen-ai. One shot.

A/N: It is not advisable to read this if you haven't read the sequel. So please do read it before for your own understanding.

This is for Autotoxicity (Ayan ah, eto na yung prequel na hinihingi mo!)

You'd think that the accident was serious; serious enough to shatter Sakuragi's pride to pieces. People were chuckling really hard, the whole stadium I mean. I knew this boy hated to be the object of fun but could he really help being funny? He had red hair for crying out loud; and he wasn't exactly the model of a good player, inter alia. He was comical to the most extreme degree without even trying and then…it just happened during our game against Ryonan. That was probably within the first 10 minutes of the first half.

His eyes were flaming-floundering-bloody angry. You imagine how it was; it was almost as if he had them dyed along with his scarlet fur head. Relentlessly red eyes; yeah, that was the term. So I was thinking what he might be so disconcerted about; usually the Sakuragi I knew was stereotypically complacent and haughty to the point of being unreasonably arrogant. That was how he was during the last game against Kainan. Kainan; when everyone else was going zany because of these top-of-the-line performers, Sakuragi was calm. He most probably didn't know a lot so he couldn't afford to panic but yeah, he was calm during our game against Kainan. That's probably because of his ignorance and arrogance; the worst dispositional mixture, a potshot. In the end, he was the most emotional though; he cried a lot because we lost and I thought he deserved pity then. But I doubt if he was the kind who would accept sympathy from others, not especially if he blamed himself for the loss.

Anyway, this Ryonan game was something of a life and death matter to him; I didn't even know why. I bet it's because we lost to them during the practice game. But for some other unknown causes, he seemed to especially have a certain animosity towards this 2nd year new guy in Ryonan named Fukuda. It was as though they'd been in the contest since the league was founded, like they'd known each other for a long time as murdering rivals; and that both's goal was to kill each other. To make matters worse, Taoka made a point of pitting this Fukuda to Sakuragi and the differences between them in terms of skills are prominently demonstrated; Sakuragi was clearly way behind Fukuda's level. So he was freaking angry most of the time in the early first half despite his former glory of getting the first point. He gave most of his stamina in a dint to contain the cheeky Fukuda, as he liked to name him. But it happened…

'You can't have that shot, you bastard!' Sakuragi ran after Fukuda in a high jump. Fukuda was going straight to the basket with the ball safely positioned on his hand. He launched himself and Sakuragi did the same. Together, their bodies were hovering in the air heading straight to the rim. But the unthinkable happened; Fukuda released the ball too early as the Ryonan crowd's confusion made itself audible through a series of buzzing. And the ball flew; with that kind of throw, there was no way it was getting in. It was a deliberate miss from the talented 2nd year; tactical genius. But Sakuragi went in to be snared into the trap, had leaped through the vertical and his body was already at the point of pouncing on the flying ball!

And he did pounce on the ball in a breakneck speed. Fukuda landed, and the ball came next, and then there was Sakuragi who landed stomach down on it. That must've hurt a lot. He was face down and the ball was beneath him, beneath his belly as I said before. At that precise moment, the claps, cheers and jeers, boos and shouts were strained. It was so freaking quiet all of a sudden; it kinda reminds me of a technical difficulty in a sound system. Anyhow, the stillness threatened to evolve into something anyone wouldn't want to hear; earsplitting laughter. Eventually it did, but not so before the ball rolled down to Sakuragi's lower body parts; all the way to his crotch—hahahaha! I bet that leather ball blasted his balls like scrambled eggs, because no matter how quiet he remained with regard to the matter, I still wouldn't forget how tears of physical pain accumulated at the tips of his eyes. Damn, I could've shouted the words 'it hurts!' for him at the time. He grabbed the spot for awhile as he sat on the floor; I could tell he was muttering to the criminal leather ball to fuck itself. Many guys came up and asked how he was, he just nodded which meant okay; usual Sakuragi. I don't even want to share how he felt after he heard the sympathetic cheers for his victimized balls. The game resumed and thanks to Mitsui, the lead was cut to more than a half; by this time, Sakuragi's frenzy over Fukuda had taken on a gentler stage. I bet that ball-busting scene traumatized him.

So yeah, Sakuragi didn't say anything about it during the half time. He didn't complain of any pain; he became unusually quiet from that point and the team wasn't much of a numskull to joke about potential sterility. Not even Mitsui. The break was practically serious and few chats about first half embarrassments were exchanged; Sakuragi's was a taboo.

But there was a knock on our dug out's door just before half time died. I opened it only to receive the surprise of my day. Was it a pleasant surprise? There he was, Akira Sendoh a phenomenal jock, the prince of all handsome smiles, standing demurely by the portal. I left my hands fall down just to make a deeper study or reassurance if I was really seeing what I thought I was. And I was right; Akira Sendoh came for Sakuragi. But what in the divine hell of Dante was he doing there? This was his pretext,

Sakuragi, being uncharacteristically poky at the time, received him. Maybe he wasn't 100 per cent aware of what he was doing, welcoming Sendoh, his purported archrival, and all.

'Hanamichi, I brought you something. I was thinking perhaps it was a damn hot pain to receive that.' Sendoh smiled as he always did; even his eyes were glittering with that infamous smile. But wait, he was referring to Sakuragi's god-fallen accident, i.e., that crushed crotch of his that probably needed its serious medication by now. I almost suffocated myself.

'What's this?' Sakuragi asked irritably while eyeing the strange package in a plastic bag.

'Ice.'

'Ice? For what, Sendo'aho?'

'For, err, your—you know what---' Sendoh's stammering was interjected.

'For your beat up balls, moron.' Mitsui interrupted from the far off end of the locker room. He chuckled so loud after that, as Sakuragi snapped with a 'Fuck you, lame duck!'

'Uhm, it will help neutralize the pain. Like, y'know, freezing the vessels for a while so---' Sendoh was explaining but Sakuragi cut him.

'I'm fine, motherfucker. Can't you see I'm too strong and stalwart and tough for any killer ball and any bastard like your Fukuda? I'm not lame like someone I know (Mitchy), you know.' Sakuragi flared.

'Hahaha. Denial, denial, baloney. How nice of you to refuse help from your nemesis, Hanamichi. But at times like this, you shouldn't be priding yourself with your physical strength because I swear, there's nothing more sensitive than a rolled over ball like yours. Not even the great Hercules can stand it, you know. Hahaha!' This time it was Miyagi who stole the scene. Sakuragi glared.

'He's right, Hanamichi. I'm just worried that what happened may affect your game later on.' Sendoh said.

Sakuragi frowned; perhaps by this time, he knew that he'd been cornered. The monstrous pain, the pushy audience, and the charming Sendoh's smile told him so.

'Give me that.' Lost for choices, Sakuragi clutched the ice package. 'And what the hell do you care about me anyway, Sendoh? And why are you calling me by my first name? I don't remember giving you the privilege.'

Sendoh drew back; Sakuragi's reply was so rude that I myself had to go between. I whacked him with my paper fan.

'Shouldn't you be grateful, Sakuragi?' I told him. He kept quiet. Serndoh was smiling again, that smile that won a thousand hearts.

'Thank you, hedgehog.' Sakuragi uttered lowly.

'Welcome. And are you sure you can get on through the next half?' Sendoh said.

'I am fine, alright? And why are you looking at me like a maniac?' Sakuragi frowned. He had intended to ask why Sendoh was glancing oddly at his basketball shorts but of course, that would be another shame point for him. And he was right; Sendoh was actually eyeing his shorts with utmost interest. Interesting.

'I'm just…er…your underwear is—' Sendoh stuttered.

Sakuragi looked down on his shorts and noticed that they weren't properly worn and that a portion of his underwear was flitting above his shorts' garters. It was red.

'Well, as you oughta know, Sendohentai; I am always color coordinated so if our jersey is red; I wear red undergarments too. Predilection for propriety, you call it. Happy now? And thanks for your Ice, prick!' Sakuragi slammed the door. Another noisy fit of titters followed among Shohoku boys.

'Darn! Why does he give a fuck about my underwear?'

The bell rang; time for second half.

I thought I would never know the start of it; of how Sakuragi got the strawberry underwear. After thousands and thousands of times of persuading him, I finally extracted the heart of the truth in it.

Yasuda found the mysterious underwear one practice game. Everybody made fun of it; Sakuragi was most vehement in his denial and the issue of who the owner was was almost a national controversy. But then Sendoh came and solved the mystery by revealing to everyone that he gave that to Sakuragi; actually, it appeared, that he gave a whole set of strawberry undies to Sakuragi, all were duplicates.

According to Sakuragi, 3 days after Ryonan lost to our team, Sendoh found himself visiting the red head at his home. He brought a package; the strawberry undies. This behavior was justified by Sendoh's sympathy towards Sakuragi's pain and more importantly, he felt that the red head should have a new set of stylish underwear because plain red was way out of fashion. Crazy, huh? I didn't know basketball jocks could be picky about style. I thought that was hilarious.

But as to why Sakuragi agreed to wear that stuff (because he already confessed that he wore them most of the times)…I am not sure. But I am, however, cocksure that he developed this kind of attachment to the Ryonan ace, so that must be enough reason to start wearing his present. Although he put so much effort in parrying that kind of suspicion. Whatever the case, I know that both Sendoh and Sakuragi are wearing the same kind of undies (both being under a sweet folie a deaux); cherry and strawberry, and I know too that they've been going out for, what? 3 weeks now? I always thought they looked cute together.

END

A/N: I know it's not very well written but I took time to type this when I should've been studying for my class; yeah, there's the effort. Anyway, thanks for reading. Ciao! 


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